The Standard for Decorating Mosques
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Allah commanded the building of mosques. The questioner says: But, Honorable Shaykh, what is the standard for their decoration and embellishment? And is it permissible, Honorable Shaykh, to exaggerate in the construction of these mosques?
Answer:
Mosques are built according to need; they are built to be strong and lasting, and this is required. As for this decoration, it is disliked; decoration and inscriptions are not appropriate in mosques. It is also not permissible to exaggerate beyond the need. There are additions; a person might build a mosque with costs that could build several mosques if distributed among them. So, extravagance and excessive spending beyond the need in building mosques is not permissible. Yes.
Allah commanded the building of mosques. The questioner says: But, Honorable Shaykh, what is the standard for their decoration and embellishment? And is it permissible, Honorable Shaykh, to exaggerate in the construction of these mosques?
Answer:
Mosques are built according to need; they are built to be strong and lasting, and this is required. As for this decoration, it is disliked; decoration and inscriptions are not appropriate in mosques. It is also not permissible to exaggerate beyond the need. There are additions; a person might build a mosque with costs that could build several mosques if distributed among them. So, extravagance and excessive spending beyond the need in building mosques is not permissible. Yes.
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 02/280 — archive.org (13:46)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.